The Cabin in the Woods (2012)
The Cabin in the Woods is a 2012 American comedy horror film directed by Drew Goddard in his directorial debut, produced by Joss Whedon, and written by Whedon and Goddard. The film stars Kristen Connolly, Chris Hemsworth, Anna Hutchison, Fran Kranz, and Jesse Williams. In the underground Facility, senior technicians Gary Sitterson and Steve Hadley discuss plans for a mysterious ritual. A similar operation undertaken by their counterparts in Stockholm has just ended in failure. American college students Dana Polk, Holden McCrea, Marty Mikalski, Jules Louden, and Curt Vaughan are spending their weekend at a seemingly deserted cabin in the forest. From the facility, Sitterson and Hadley manipulate them by intoxicating the teenagers with psychotropic drugs that hinder rational thinking and increase libido. They take bets from the different Facility departments on what kind of monster will attack the teenagers. In the cabin's cellar, the group finds many bizarre objects, including the diary of Patience Buckner, a cabin resident abused by her sadistic family. Dana recites incantations from the journal, inadvertently summoning the zombified Buckner family. By releasingpheremones, Hadley successfully induces Curt and Jules to have sex. Attacked by marauding Buckners, Jules is decapitated, but Curt escapes alerting everyone else. Marty, a frequent marijuana smoker, discovers concealed surveillance equipment before being dragged off by Judah Buckner. Curt, Holden, and Dana attempt escape in their RV. Following a glitch in the Demolitions Department, Sitterson triggers a tunnel collapse rendering the tunnel impassable. Curt jumps a ravine on his motorcycle, but is killed crashing into a camouflaged force shield. In the RV, Father Buckner stabs Holden and the RV veers into a lake. Dana swims ashore and is attacked by Matthew Buckner. As he prepares the final blow, Sitterson receives a phone call from "downstairs" informing him that Marty is still alive. Marty rescues Dana and shows her an obscured elevator. They take the elevator into the facility, where a menagerie of monsters are imprisoned. Dana observes a cenobite-like creature clutching a globe similar to one in the cabin and realizes that the items there dictate which monster will be unleashed. Cornered by the Facility's security, she and Marty release the monsters which run rampant and slaughter the Facility's staff. Dana and Marty discover a temple where the project director explains that, every year, worldwide rituals are held to appease the Ancient Ones, malevolent beings living beneath the facility. The Ancient Ones are kept in perpetual slumber through an annual pars pro toto sacrifice of five young people embodying certain archetypes: the whore (Jules), the athlete (Curt), the scholar (Holden), the fool (Marty), and the virgin (Dana). The order in which intended victims perish is flexible, as long as the Whore is first and the Virgin survives or dies last. The director urges Dana to shoot Marty, completing the ritual and saving humanity which is interrupted by a werewolf attack. Patience Buckner arrives, killing the director, and Marty pushes them into a chasm. Dana and Marty share a joint as an Ancient One stirs, destroying the Facility as its giant hand emerges from beneath the cabin.